World War II Figures, Part 3 - United States Quiz

Answer: Chester W. Nimitz

Nimitz spent much of his early naval career in submarines. Shortly after Pearl Harbour, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet. In 1942, he led the Americans to victory at the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway. Victory at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944 effectively ended the Japanese aircraft carrier threat. Nimitz then led seaborne support as the Allies invaded Iwo Jima and Okinawa as the war neared its end.

Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt was a career politician who was first elected President of the U.S.A. in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression. Although he would have preferred to keep America out of the war, he agreed a lend-lease program which provided military and economic aid to the allies.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7th, 1941 (described by Roosevelt as a "day that will live in infamy") led to the U.S. entering the war, with Roosevelt in the White House for most of its duration. He died in April, 1945, a few months before the end of the war.

Answer: J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer was a nuclear physicist who worked as a college professor between the wars. In 1942, he joined the atomic bomb project and became director of the Los Alamos laboratory. By July. 1945, Oppenheimer and his team had created the first nuclear bomb which was detonated in New Mexico. Two more bombs were subsequently dropped on Japan and the war was effectively over.

Answer: George S. Patton

Patton was a career soldier who served in France during World War I. During World War II, he served in North Africa and Italy before being put in charge of the U.S. 3rd Army following the D-Day invasion. He led them through France and into Germany. After the war he was appointed military governor of Bavaria. He was killed in a car crash in December, 1945.

Answer: Harry S. Truman

Truman served in France during World War I, before embarking on a political career. A Senator from Missouri, he was chosen by Franklin Roosevelt to be his running-mate in the 1944 Presidential election. He became the 34th Vice President of the U.S.A. in early 1945, and then the 33rd President on Roosevelt's death in April, 1945.

In August of that year, he gave the go-ahead for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which brought the war to an early conclusion.

Answer: George Marshall

Marshall served with the U.S. Army in France during World War I. He became Army Chief of Staff in September, 1939. He was in charge of deployment of American forces in both Europe and the Pacific. He was expected to be named Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Normandy, but President Roosevelt preferred to keep him in Washington.

After the war, he was named U.S. Secretary of State and devised the Marshall Plan which helped rebuild Western Europe.

Answer: Paul Tibbets

Tibbets flew anti-submarine patrols during 1941 before joining the 97th Bombardment Group the following year. He was deployed to the U.K. where he flew missions over Nazi-occupied Europe. He returned to America in 1943 where he test-flew the new B-29 Superfortress.

In the summer of 1945, he was deployed to the Pacific; on August 6th, he piloted the "Enola Gay" (named after his mother), dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower served with the General Staff in Washington in early 1942 where he was involved in devising plans to defeat Germany and Japan. He was in charge of the invasions of both North Africa and Sicily, before being appointed as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in late 1943.

He was charged with planning the D-Day invasion of Normandy, and remained in command of Allied Forces in Northern Europe until the end of the war. In 1953, he was elected as the 34th President of the U.S.A.

Answer: Harold G. Schrier

Schrier joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1936 and saw active service at Guadalcanal. On February 23rd, 1945, he led a 40-man patrol which captured the strategic Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. A photograph of Schrier and some of his colleagues raising the American flag at the summit became one of the most iconic images of the war. He later went on to serve in the Korean War.

Answer: Douglas MacArthur

McArthur served with the Army during the First World War. Between the wars, he served in the Philippines, before retiring from the Army in 1937. With war looming in 1941, he was recalled to active duty, and returned to the Philippines. Forced to flee from the Japanese in late 1942, he vowed that "I will return".

As Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific, he served in New Guinea, before he indeed returned to the Philippines in 1944. He formally accepted the Japanese surrender in September, 1945, and oversaw the occupation of Japan over the next six years.